Our approach to gathering data on U.S. crime rates involved consulting authoritative and reliable sources. These included the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), and state-level law enforcement agency reports. We also utilized academic databases and peer-reviewed journals for studies related to crime statistics and trends across the United States.
- Federal and State Crime Reports: The FBI’s UCR Program was our main source for nationwide data, providing annual crime reports that include violent and property crime rates across cities and states. For state-specific data, we turned to reports published by state law enforcement agencies, which often contain detailed statistics at the city and county levels.
- Academic and Peer-reviewed Journals And Reputable Websites: To supplement official reports, we searched academic databases such as JSTOR, PubMed, Google Scholar, NeighborhoodScout, etc. for studies examining trends, factors influencing crime rates, and the effectiveness of crime prevention strategies across different U.S. locales.
- Verification and Cross-Checking: All data sourced were cross-checked for consistency and reliability. Discrepancies were noted and addressed by consulting additional sources or directly contacting the agencies or researchers involved.
Analysis
This process included figuring out crime rates per capita, spotting patterns over time, and putting crime statistics from various cities and states side by side. We also took a close look at how things like economic conditions, the way police work, and changes in laws might affect crime rates.
